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Saturday, September 29, 2012

Saturday Steam 9/29/12

Absolutely gorgeous mod by Andrew - you can see some in-process shot in his Imgur album. (Thx for the link, Jacob M.!)

And while we're mixing steampunk with retro gaming systems:

How about this steampunk "Monster Arcade" by Doug Haffner? The green portholes on the sides have holographic images of Frankenstien and his bride in them, and I'm digging that rich blue lighting underneath. Hit the link for build photos. (Thx, Erik!)

You know how a lot of people have bucket lists? Well, I have a *craft* bucket list, and making my own nixie tube clock is on it. Here are a few I've been drooling over:

Amy J. sent this one over from Steve's Nixie Clocks. I like how the glass case lets you see all the circuitry inside - plus the reflection looks super cool:

And here's a neat idea: John Clark Mills put his nixie tube clock in an old mantle clock case:

Such a great way to rescue and re-use old clock cases!

And finally, Instructables member Hellboy added blue LEDs, acrylic tubing, and found objects to make one of the most stunning and unique nixie tube clocks I've ever seen:

WOW.

Hit the link up there for his step-by-step tutorial.

There are kits online for building and wiring your own nixie tube clock, so if you're curious just google around a bit. (Sadly I have no specific venders to recommend. If you do, though, please let me know in the comments!)

And finally, Audrey F. over in France sent me a few snapshots of an amazing carousel located in the city of Nantes, the birthplace of Jules Verne. It's called "Le Carrousel Les Machines" and is themed around Verne and his work, so there's plenty of sealife and steampunky contraptions:

I was so intrigued I went looking for more, and found a video of the carousel in action:

As you can see, Audrey's pics barely scratch the surface of the jaw-dropping awesomeness.It's a carousel of automatons! I AM IN AWE.

And as if that weren't enough, I also found a video of some creatures they were planning to add to the carousel in the future. Since the video is a year old, I wonder if they're already there now?

AH - wait for it - MAZING. That sea dragon! Swoon.

So next time you're in Paris, swing by and take a ride on the seahorse for me, k?

That's all for this week! Hope you're having a sensational weekend, and as always, if you see something steamy you'd like to share, hit me up in the comments or over on Facebook!

My husband has been working on his nixie tube clock for a few months now. We're actually headed to our local makers faire today so he can get a few more tips on de-soldering. He's a pretty big arduino geek (he built a lightning trigger for his camera so we now have lots of cool lighting pictures). But yeah I'll send some pictures of the clock when it is finished (on a side note do you have any idea how hard it is to find metal mesh/grating with a hex pattern that isn't huge or chicken wire? Its hard!)

Okay I'm apparently not awake yet, I looked at the first clock picture and went "huh? that's too many numbers..." it took me a while to figure out duh, ya suppose those are seconds? I'm gonna go take a nap now. Love the 'punked Nintendo!

For the record, Nantes isn't close enough to Paris that you can just jaunt over there to ride a carousel. :) I wish it were. I'd be over there in a flash....

@Marie, definitely put it on your list. Nantes is beautiful. There's also a pretty amazing mechanical elephant in the same general area. And Noirmoutier (an adorable little island) is only a two hour bus ride away. Check that out if you can, too.

There's a Jules Verne festival coming up here in Paris in couple of weeks. Wish I could afford it....

Thank you for making my hubby's day when you posted the Nintendo link he sent you! He hasn't been able to stop talking about how awesome it was to go onto Epbot and see the link (and the thanks) you posted. Thank you!

For the Nintendo mod the tools that hold the rivet holes in alignment until you can rivet them all are called cleco, you need to buy a set of them plus the pliers here's a link on amazon for themhttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008324AG2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=A3I835QP9MZHR5

For the finishing on the rivets in the video he used a rivet shaver which is primarily marketted by the airplane industry. The normal version of this is rather expensive apparently because the tools are pneumatic. You have to by a bit and a collet for it. If anyone has a link for a hobby version of it I'd love to follow it!